Public Schools Act 1868 Article Index for
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Public Schools Act 1868




It was based on the report of the Clarendon Commission , a Royal Commission on Public School s which sat from 1861 to 1864 , and investigated conditions and abuses which had grown up over the centuries at nine, great, nominally charitable schools:


The Act removed the schools from any direct responsibility of the government, granting them their independence and instating a board of governors for each, and led to the relaxation of the curriculum, from the previously-mandated, wholly Classics -based one, to a broader academic span. The Act having given the description of Public School to a few exclusive and distinguished institutions, many lesser schools hurried to associate themselves by adopting the term, which remains in common use in England to describe independent senior schools.